Tag Archives: Kevin Wilson

Rally St. Louis today unveiled the installation of its latest funding project — Project Blacktop, an urban basketball court completed on the grounds of the north St. Louis city charter middle school KIPP Inspire Academy.

Rally St. Louis is proud to announce its latest project to enter funding! Branded Crosswalks is a community project whose goal is to beautify #OurSTL by painting beautiful, resident-approved crosswalks in neighborhoods around the St. Louis area.

In light of the recent events in Ferguson and North St. Louis County, Rally St. Louis is transitioning its traditional efforts and focusing instead on helping the St. Louis community move forward. We stand with the residents, businesses, peacemakers and citizens that want our region to […]

You may have heard of the wildly popular blog, I work at a public library, full of stories submitted by library workers from all over the world. Now Gina Sheridan has published a book by the same, full of characters and plot twists that will make you laugh, sigh and maybe even shed a tear.

A new marketing campaign for St. Louis by the CVC is raising some eyebrows in Chicago. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the racy posters are plastered on transit trains. They encourage riders to come to St. Louis for a “Weekend Quickie.”

The most significant Rally Saint Louis project to-date today took flight as officials from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and The Magic House St. Louis Children’s Museum unveiled the St. Louis International Play Port, a new transportation-themed children’s exhibit created by The Magic House. Located in the C Concourse, this 1,500-square-foot interactive exhibit features a mini airport where children […]

Rally Saint Louis congratulates Jill McGuire, Executive Director and one of the founders of the Regional Arts Commission, on her recently announced retirement. McGuire’s decision to retire, effective December 31, 2014, will bring to close a remarkable career of nearly 30 years of service to the Commission, its constituents and the region at large.

Enjoy being kind of a big deal? Like playing a little holiday-time hooky or simply taking a loooooong lunch? Well on Friday, December 20th, Rally Saint Louis is offering up the chance. The public is invited to fill up 160 seats in the new MX Movie Theater in downtown St. Louis for a special and […]

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is about to get a lot more kid friendly. Today officials from Lambert, The Magic House St. Louis Children’s Museum, and Rally Saint Louis announced that a 1,500-square-foot, hands-on children’s exhibit has received full funding and approvals to begin construction and open in late May for the start of the busy […]

In honor of St. Louis’ 250th birthday year, stl250 is celebrating the most iconic locations in the area with “Cakeway to the West.” That’s right, folks. CAKE! Unfortunately this isn’t the kind you eat…or at least we don’t suggest it. “Cakeway to the West” will place […]

The Partnership for Downtown St. Louis announced today that Doug Woodruff, partner at consulting firm, DFC Group, and former executive at Bank of America, has accepted the position of President and CEO effective January 1, 2014. The Partnership board unanimously approved this recommendation of the search committee in a special session today. “Doug’s extensive leadership […]

Thanks to increased joint efforts by local law enforcement and “hot spot” policing, crime in St. Louis City continues to decrease and has actually dropped by 46 percent since 2006 according to the St. Louis Metro Police Department. A new video on St. Louis and crime was just released by four regional civic organizations — St. Louis Civic […]

Operation Food Search is launching a new fundraising initiative, Operation PhilanthroPIE, taking orders for home-style pies for Thanksgiving. The proceeds from each pie sale will help Operation Food Search provide a feast for a family of four this Thanksgiving season. Pumpkin, Apple and Pecan Pies baked by River City Casino & Hotel’s Executive Chef John […]

Today is T-REx 2nd birthday! To celebrate, they’re holding an event this evening at Prime 1000 Steakhouse (10th & Washington) where they’ll be announcing their upcoming big move to the Lammert building. T-REx is a project of […]

WITH CARDINALS IN FALL CLASSIC, ENTIRE STATE, REGION PREPARES FOR WORLD SERIES With the World Series spotlight shining brightly on the St. Louis Cardinals, the entire state of Missouri, St. Louis region, and agencies responsible for tourism and economic development are ready to welcome baseball fans from Boston and across the globe. “In what is […]

“I am thrilled to see my installation of Cube Chair at the Grove,” said artist Tim Smith, Cube Chair creator. “I think the specific location will make it very visible and start meaningful discussions. I am grateful to the Grove for welcoming the chair and I’m excited to see what locals think.”

More than 1 million people in Missouri are unable to get food on a regular basis. Globally, hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria, & tuberculosis combined, according to the UN World Food Programme. For the “food insecure” (as it’s known) in the USA, it’s about the recent increase in poverty, and an […]

Rally STL is only U.S.-based program recognized by the Place Marketing Chair The Place Marketing Forum, an annual international conference hosted by the Regional Attractiveness & Place Marketing Chair at Sciences Po Aix University, has recognized Rally Saint Louis, the first-of-its-kind crowdsourced and crowdfunded regional marketing platform, for best practices in regional marketing and citizen […]

Here’s a fun and free event: Yoga class under the Arch with Saul David Raye – from Yoga Within The Confluence. Yoga is for integrating the spirit, the mind and the body. It uplifts the practitioner and in the process helps open him or her up to new and amazing possibilities. St. Louis has a […]

St. Louis-area furniture craftsman David Stine, of David Stine Woodworking, is a leading contender in the 2013 Martha Stewart American Made Competition, which honors the best in American artisanal craft and design. Stine, who lives in Richmond Heights, has been handcrafting furniture since 1997, is nominated in the design category which recognizes makers of furniture […]

Congrats to The Homeroom, our newest Rally Saint Louis idea that has made it into our funding phase. The Homeroom is an online educational and social network that offers high school students a program to assist with their transfer from community college to university. The website, http://thehomeroom.org/St_Louis.html will also offer tutoring services, learning games and […]

In May, we accepted nominations for some of the biggest Cardinals fans to earn an opportunity to throw out the first pitch at home game against the Brewers. We selected a winner and a runner up, thinking both would be allowed onto the field. Unfortunately we were mistaken and only Arthur, who was selected to […]

Have you ever wanted to party at The Magic House with an adult beverage and adult friends for a great cause? On Thursday, June 20 from 7:00 – 10:00 pm you can! Bring your friends, have a drink, and revisit some of your favorite childhood memories. The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum is hosting […]

James Corbett takes closer look at one of the fastest growing start-up communities in the country — St. Louis — home to the “T-Rex” building which houses 70 businesses under the same roof and is expanded rapidly. This is a look at the people who run those business featuring Geoff Stonner of FoodEssentials, Allison Carmen of […]

This story by Ben Casselman ran in the Wall Street Journal June 12, 2013 ST. LOUIS—This city, which sponsored Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic and served as the starting point for Lewis and Clark’s westward expedition, is trying to recapture its risk-taking spirit. Stung by the takeover of iconic local companies such as Anheuser-Busch, […]

After announcing the funding of its first two projects in April, Rally Saint Louis — the first-of-its-kind non-profit platform that allows anyone to submit, vote for, and help fund ideas aimed at improving the greater St. Louis region — today announced it has funded its third endeavor: Project Blacktop. Project Blacktop was submitted by rising […]

Looking for something fun to do on Friday night? We’ll be celebrating the new Hot List — celebrating 100 of St. Louis’ best restaurants, boutiques, hotspots, cultural institutions and more — with the peeps from ALIVE Magazine at The Chase Park Plaza while raising charitable funds for Rally Saint Louis projects. So hit up the official St. Louis Hot List […]

In December, we reached out to the Rally Saint Louis community to help Mayor Slay place bike racks throughout the area. The mayor’s office is working to make the City of St. Louis a premier cycling destination and Mayor Slay and his staff considered each suggestion and pursued locations in an effort to find the […]

The afternoon of Sunday, May 19, was a special one for Rally Saint Louis and one St. Louisian in particular. The generous St. Louis Cardinals made the date Rally Saint Louis Day at the Ballpark, and with it came the opportunity to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. True to the Rally mission, we left […]

It’s been an exciting week for Rally Saint Louis! On Thursday we announced Justin Striebel as the Grand Prize winner of the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame (a Rally project in funding) Sweepstakes through Lockerdome. Justin won 2 tickets to any home 2013 St. Louis Rams game, a signed football from Rams LB James Laurinaitis, […]

Last week we told you that on Sunday afternoon May 19, when our St. Louis Cardinals face off against the Milwaukee Brewers, we’ll also be celebrating Rally Saint Louis Day at Busch Stadium and giving away free Rally STL tees — generously donated by CafePress — in Ford Plaza located behind the bleacher seats in the outfield […]

Yes, St. Louis has crime, but not anywhere near the level recorded by federal crime reporting cities. We could explain it to you. It’s rather simple. But we’d rather have Washington University students Liz Schranck,Vanessa Woods and Madeline Yochum do it in song.

Ever want to throw out the first pitch at a Cardinals game in front of thousands at Busch Stadium? Well, here’s your chance. On Sunday afternoon May 19, when our St. Louis Cardinals face off against the Milwaukee Brewers, we’ll also be celebrating Rally Saint Louis Day at Busch Stadium and giving away free Rally […]

Fresh off our heels of three recently funded Rally Saint Louis projects, we’re in our fourth round of funding and have new ideas ready for your donations. Projects range from major endeavors with a National Beer Museum, to shipping containers that function as cafes along the riverfront. The latest ideas are below but other ideas […]

Education matters. As we look to advance the region, no factor more so than education will help elevate the shared prosperity of St. Louis-area residents. The business and education community are working to advance this and you can read more at TopTenEducation.org. Check out the video below for a taste. #STLisTopTen

Sure we announced last week that Rally Saint Louis has successfully funded its first two projects but we’re not done there. JOIN US on Friday, April 26th at the In & Out Market in Richmond Heights for a cornhole toss tournament with cash and gift prizes. Proceeds will go to help fund Rally Saint Louis idea: Project Blacktop. […]

St. Louis, Missouri (April 18, 2013) — After launching in November 2012 as a first-of-its-kind platform that allows consumers to submit, vote for, and help fund ideas that drive progress in greater St. Louis, Rally Saint Louis tonight announced its first two funded concepts and introduced an exciting new partnership with a progressive new social […]

Rally Saint Louis’ Brian Cross and Food Roof’s Mary Ostafi sit down with City Corner to talk about the city, Rally Saint Louis, Food Roof and more! You can still donate to Food Roof and other great ideas! Donate Here.

One of the great events on the St. Louis cultural landscape in recent years has been the reinvention of the Peabody Opera House. So when we found out that the real Captain James T. Hook was playing himself in the touring production of Peter Pan at the Peabody last week, we scheduled an exclusive interview […]

Spring is officially here (he said, furiously knocking on wood) and along with it a new batch of Rally Saint Louis ideas are ready to be funded. From the beautiful, such as an art installation and restoration, to an homage of our beer culture, this group of ideas has a lot of promise for Saint […]

The fashionistas and Scott Disicks of Saint Louis descend on Plush Saint Louis tonight to kick off Saint Louis Fashion Week. Get your tickets here for $10 or at the door for $15. General Admission begins at 8pm and is 21+. The Rally Saint Louis team will be there, talking about Saint Louis and how […]

A bustling bus of startups from St. Louis and across the state are headed to SxWSi, or South By Southwest Interactive to the uninitiated, to strut their stuff. With the success of projects such as St. Louis’ TREx Incubator and ITEN, along with Digital Village and Google Fiber in Kansas City, Missouri’s footprint on the […]

We did it! Well, you guys did it. We just banged on some calculators, talked to people smarter than ourselves and put together the financials needed to pull off the amazing projects that start the funding phase this month. Last month’s four ideas remain on the board as well. Remember, budgeted ideas will remain open […]

Members of the Rally Saint Louis staff are appearing at neighborhood association meetings — like last night in Tower Grove Heights — as well as workplace gatherings to discuss how residents from around the region can participate, submit ideas, vote, and help fund projects on the Rally platform. If you are interested in having someone […]

Over the last few years, the St. Louis Ad Club’s annual ADDY Award ceremony had just plateaued. It was a nice event, but had not really evolved. It was great to go out and see winning work, see old friends and have a few drinks, but there wasn’t a true celebration of the work or for that […]

We recently caught up with some of the region’s leaders and entrepreneurs — from Mayor Francis Slay and the CVC’s Kitty Ratcliffe to Bonfyre’s Mark Sawyierto hear what they think about Rally Saint Louis. Thanks to the following people for sharing their thoughts! (in order of appearance) Kitty Ratcliffe, Convention & Visitor’s Commission Mark Sawyier, […]

How cool would it be to have your design featured on an official Saint Louis City magnet? Well now’s your chance. The Circuit Attorney’s Office is currently seeking individuals in our community to help design a new magnet for their communications department. This magnet will be handed out at neighborhood and community meetings throughout the […]

Urban Harvest STL, the nonprofit behind St. Louis’ first downtown community garden, is celebrating being one step closer to building the city’s first roof-top farm, the FOOD ROOF, after garnering the most citizen votes in an online “ideas” for the month of December on Rally Saint Louis. Now the FOOD ROOF project seeks funding […]

If you’ve been following Rally Saint Louis, you know that our focus is pretty simple — we want to trumpet what’s great about greater St. Louis. One of those vital elements is our business and economic development community, led by the St. Louis Regional Chamber (formerly RCGA). So we recently visited the Regional Chamber’s 176 […]

The Rally Saint Louis Budget & Marketing Committee today announced budget totals for the most popular ideas to improve or better market the metro St. Louis region as voted upon throughout December. On Friday, Feb. 1, those ideas open for funding while the five most popular concepts from January will now enter the budget assessment […]

There is a broad team behind the Rally Saint Louis platform whom we will introduce St. Louisans to in the coming months. Name: Dave Vislosky Role on Rally STL: Technical project manager. I work for Elasticity and developed the initial functional specs for the site and managed the build-out. How long have you lived in St. Louis: Though […]

Stay Tuned on Nine Network welcomed us onto their show recently to talk about Rally Saint Louis and Civic Pride in the city. Check out the clip above, then watch the rest of the show on Civic Pride right here.

St. Louis got lucky in 1940; Stan Musial got hurt. Prior to injuring his shoulder in the outfield, he had been a pitching prospect for the Cardinals, and, while it sure seems likely his hitting prowess would have emerged, there’s always the chance Stan “The Man” might have turned into just another pitcher and not […]

On 12/21 at approximately high noon, an event of epic historical importance took place – Rally Saint Louis’ Reason for the Season Rabble-Rousers Santa Razor Race Round Downtown To Fight Hunger (and working on Friday afternoons). The santas, and one elf, of Rally Saint Louis scooted around town to collect food for the St. Louis […]

There is a broad team behind the Rally Saint Louis platform whom we will introduce St. Louisans to in the coming months. Name: Jamal R.S. McLaughlin Role on Rally:Senior project manager. How Long You’ve Lived In St. Louis: I’ve only ever lived in IL, but only ever worked in St.louis. Go figure. Favorite St. Louis […]

The Rally Saint Louis platform launched in mid-November and began accepting ideas for how to improve or better market the metro St. Louis region. Throughout December, citizens voted on those ideas — several hundred concepts and growing by the day. While new ideas will continue to be accepted on the site and voting will continue, […]

Want to help fight hunger in St. Louis and have a great time? Friday, Dec. 21 at high noon the Rally Saint Louis’ Reason for the Season Rabble-Rousers Santa Razor Race Round Downtown To Fight Hunger (and working on Friday afternoons) — #RallyRace — will kickoff at the corner of 10th Street & Washington Avenue […]

Because he believes in the power and ideals of the Rally Saint Louis movement — engaging the region’s residents to help make St. Louis a great place to live, work and play — Mayor Francis Slay has been a vital supporter of the effort. The Mayor’s Office is also working to make the City of […]

There is a broad team behind the Rally Saint Louis platform whom we will introduce St. Louisans to in the coming months. Name: Sheila Mikles Role on Rally STL: I am one of the lead account / project managers for Elasticity on the Rally team making sure each aspect of this very large ship is […]

Need yet another reason to Rally for St. Louis? Let’s remember there are seminal moments in St. Louis history: the Arch is built, the first BLT at Crown Candy Kitchen is served, the Rams come to town, and of course, the greatest pre-holiday scooter race between two Santa Claus’ in the history of pre-holiday scooter […]

There is a broad team behind the Rally Saint Louis platform whom we will introduce St. Louisans to in the coming months. Name: Jason Fiehler Role on Rally STL: Executive Producer of the website/technology. How long have you lived in St. Louis: Off and on – total time in STL is 28 years. Favorite St. Louis […]

There is a broad team behind the Rally Saint Louis platform whom we will introduce St. Louisans to in the coming months. Name: Heath Harris, but you can call me Heathro. Role on Rally STL: I took the initial website concepts and art direction and blew out the rest of the design, page layouts and […]

There is a broad team behind the Rally Saint Louis platform whom we will introduce St. Louisans to in the coming months. Name: Colby Gergen What do you do for Rally Saint Louis: I started off helping define the idea and flow, then I helped with the strategy and direction of the website. Now I […]

December 7 is an important day in American history. It is of course Pearl Harbor Day, marking the day in 1941 when Japanese war ships bombed Pearl Harbor killing 2,400 Americans and wounding some 1,100. Not to diminish from that in any way, but today also marks an anniversary of sorts for the Rally Saint […]

After launching in mid-November and receiving more than 150 creative idea submissions, this week Rally Saint Louis enters the second phase of its crowdsourcing and crowdfunding process ultimately aimed at better-positioning the greater St. Louis region. A purely citizen driven movement, the community is now tasked with voting for their favorite ideas. At the end […]

As we continue to receive great ideas for the Rally platform, there’s one easy thing for the greater St. Louis community to Rally around — the new Cardinals uniforms! The team today unveiled new uniforms for the 2013 season, the first update to the teams’ wardrobe in more than a decade. For the first time […]

Rally Saint Louis is a collaborative, idea-generating platform that’s a product of the hard work and creativity of a number of St. Louis people and companies. Today we introduce the first Rally Saint Louis video, developed by our friends at Coolfire Media.

If you have read the previous post about the history of Rally Saint Louis, you know the backstory: I’d been writing for Forbes for about three years, and in December 2011 I penned a piece called “St. Louis Doesn’t Suck” about what makes our city a great place to live, work and play. In it, […]

Know anyone that has made a difference here in Saint Louis? You know, the regular “folks” who do it just because. Not because they’re a celebrity, or a politician, or it’s their job. But the lady down the street that got everyone together to create a dog park, or the guy who started the food […]

I’ve been writing for Forbes for about three years, and in December 2011, I wrote a piece called “St. Louis Doesn’t Suck.” The reaction shocked me. Typically my stuff is read by marketers, not moms from St. Charles. This one hit a nerve. Some fired off some negative comments but most people who read it […]

*This was initially published on Forbes.com in December 2011. I’ve lived a somewhat nomadic existence in my adult life, moving from Richmond to Miami to New Orleans to New York to Raleigh to St. Petersburg. Six years ago my wife and I reluctantly moved to St. Louis but very quickly found it to be a […]